Mamdouh Ismail

Who is Mamdouh Ismail?

Mamdouh Ismail is an Egyptian defence attorney and a former member of "the Jihad group", who since the 1980s has represented various Egyptians accused of terrorism offences in Egypt. He was arrested himself on 29 March 2007 and is now accused of complicity in an "Egyptian project" of al-Qaeda, taking his orders from Ayman al-Zawahiri via Muhammad Khalil al-Hukaymah and Hani al-Sibai. All three—Ismail, al-Sibai, and al-Hukaymah -- deny that charge. Ismail is also charged with incitement. As of late 2011, he was a member of the Authenticity Party.

When Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in June 2006 and replaced by someone with the previously unknown pseudonym Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, the American military soon identified the latter as Abu Ayyub al-Masri. It was Mamdouh Ismail who then started the false rumour that Abu Ayyub was already in prison in Egypt.

Ismael has publicly objected to a reconciliation between Cairo and Egyptian Islamic Jihad. In 1999 he was refused permission to establish an Islamist political party with the help of fellow lawyer Muntasir al-Zayyat. Those two worked alongside Hani al-Sibai as well, before the latter took refuge in the UK.